Nene and Denver Nuggets Whip Dallas Mavericks in Fourth, Take Imposing 2-0 Lead

For the second straight game the Denver Nuggets took care of business in the fourth quarter. It was 86-83 for the Nuggets heading into the fourth, until the Nuggets outscored the Mavericks 31-22 for a 117-105 win.

"I thought we were right there again like we were the other night and just things with this team can get out of hand quickly,'' said Dirk Nowitzki, who scored 35 points.

After getting bullied in game one, the Mavericks made a change to their starting lineups replacing JJ Berea for Antoine Wright. Josh Howard for the second straight game went into the locker room, but did not return this time. Denver fell behind quick as the Mavs lead 7-2 at the 9:52 second mark.

Nowitzki once again went off onto a hot start having 12 points in the first quarter, and finishing with 17 at the half. Kidd who went 2-3 from the line last game finishing with 15 points only had four points on 1-6 shooting.

The Mavs had 52 bench points to Denver's 37. The bench was supposed to be a big factor in this game, but the starters contributed a lot more than their average.

Nene playing outstanding in this Western Conference Semi Finals match up is averaging 24.5 PPG 5.5 RPG and 2.5 APG went out scoring 25 points on 8/12 shooting (66 percent). It seems like the Mavericks have no answer for Nene. If he can keep up this performance, it would make this series much easier for the Nuggets.

Carmelo, who started off cold once again exploded for 10 points during a 16-2 run to start the fourth quarter. He has 15 points total in the fourth en route to 25.

Billups, who made the game winning play of the game (said Anthony) beat Jason Terry down the court to negate the over and back violation which ended in a easy Denver dunk.

"That was the key play of the game,'' Carmelo Anthony said. "He could've easily just let that ball go out of bounds, he chased it down, got J.R. the layup. We came down and we scored again and again and again. That play right there was the biggest play of the game.''

"Those are absolutely the kind of the plays you've got to make,'' Billups said. "If you don't make them, just try—100 percent effort. That play in a strange sort of way kind of turned the game around because it told us, that this is kind of game it's going to be.

The Nuggets have won 15 straight at home dating back to March 11th. Dallas has gone 17-1 at home, with that one loss being to Denver.

With the series moving over to Dallas, they are going to have to win game three and four in order to stay alive in this series.

"They've held serve,'' Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said. "We go back to Dallas and we've got to do the same. We've got a few days to regroup and work on some things.''